Lieutenant David Barneburg Has the Power to Decide Who's Put Into

No Way Out

Lieutenant David Barneburg has the power to decide who’s put into solitary for years—or decades.

22 mother jones | November/December 2012 No Wayit’s been seven months since I’ve been Locked upOut in Iran, I saw men put in the inside a prison cell. Now I’m back, sort of. The experience is eerily like my dreams, where I am a prisoner in another man’s hole for the company they kept, the cell. Like the cell I go back to in my sleep, this one is built for solitary confinement. books they read, the beliefs they held. I’m taking intermittent, heaving breaths, like I can’t get enough air. This still hap- I did not expect to find the same back pens to me from time to time, especially home in California. By Shane Bauer in tight spaces. At a little over 11 by 7 feet, this cell is smaller than any I’ve ever inhab- photograph by shane bauer ited. You can’t pace in it. Like in my dreams, I case the space for the means of staying sane. Is there a TV to watch, a book to read, a round object to no way to speak to a lawyer and no means insanity is found in tiny details? Do I point toss? The pathetic artifacts of this inmate’s of contesting the charges against us, which out that I had a mattress, and they have thin life remind me of objects that were once included espionage. The alleged evidence pieces of foam; that the concrete open-air everything to me: a stack of books, a hand- the court held was “confidential.” cell I exercised in was twice the size of the made chessboard, a few scattered pieces What I want to tell Acosta is that no part “dog run” at Pelican Bay, which is about 16 of artwork taped to the concrete, a family of my experience—not the uncertainty of by 25 feet; that I got 15 minutes of phone photo, large manila envelopes full of let- when I would be free again, not the tor- calls in 26 months, and they get none; that ters. I know that these things are his world. tured screams of other prisoners—was I couldn’t write letters, but they can; that we “So when you’re in Iran and in solitary worse than the four months I spent in soli- could only talk to nearby prisoners in secret, confinement,” asks my guide, Lieutenant tary confinement. What would he say if I but they can shout to each other without be- Chris Acosta, “was it different?” His tone told him I needed human contact so badly ing punished; that unlike where I was impris- makes clear that he believes an Iranian that I woke every morning hoping to be oned, whoever lives here has to shit at the prison to be a bad place. interrogated? Would he believe that I once front of his cell, in view of the guards? He’s right about that. After being ap- yearned to be sat down in a padded, sound- “There was a window,” I say. I don’t prehended on the Iran-Iraq border, Sarah proof room, blindfolded, and questioned, quite know how to tell him what I mean Shourd, Josh Fattal, and I were held in Evin just so I could talk to somebody? by that answer. “Just having that light Prison’s isolation ward for political prison- I want to answer his question—of course come in, seeing the light move across ers. Sarah remained there for 13 months, my experience was different from those of the cell, seeing what time of day it was—” Josh and I for 26 months. We were held the men at California’s Pelican Bay State Without those windows, I wouldn’t have incommunicado. We never knew when, Prison—but I’m not sure how to do it. How had the sound of ravens, the rare breezes, or if, we would get out. We didn’t go to do you compare, when the difference be- or the drops of rain that I let wash over my trial for two years. When we did we had tween one person’s stability and another’s face some nights. My world would have

November/December 2012 | mother jones 23 no way out been utterly restricted to my concrete box, I’ve been corresponding with at least years. During that time, he hasn’t spoken to to watching the miniature ocean waves I 20 inmates in shus around California as his family. He has never met any of his seven made by sloshing water back and forth in part of an investigation into why and how grandchildren. In the shu, he’s seen “some a bottle; to marveling at ants; to calculat- people end up here. While at Pelican Bay, of the strongest men I know fall apart.” ing the mean, median, and mode of the I’m not allowed to see or speak to any of But the fact that Pennington is in soli- tick marks on the wall; to talking to myself them. Since 1996, California law has given tary is not what is remarkable about his without realizing it. For hours, days, I fix- prison authorities full control of which in- story. More than 80,000 people were in ated on the patch of sunlight cast against mates journalists can interview. The only solitary confinement in the United States in my wall through those barred and grated one I’m permitted to speak to is the same 2005, the last time the federal government windows. When, after five weeks, my knees person the New York Times was allowed to released such data. In California alone, at buckled and I fell to the ground utterly interview months before. He is getting out least 11,730 people are housed in some broken, sobbing and rocking to the beat of of the shu because he informed on other form of isolation. What is unique about Pennington—if being one of thousands can be considered When, after five weeks, I fell to the ground utterly unique—is that he doesn’t broken, sobbing and rocking to the beat of my heart, know when, or if, he will get out of the shu. Like at least it was a patch of sunlight that brought me back. 3,808 others in California, he is serving an indeterminate sentence. Compared to most shu my heart, it was the patch of sunlight that prisoners. In fact, this shu pod—the only inmates, Pennington is a newbie. Prisoners brought me back. Its slow creeping against one I am allowed to see—is populated en- spend an average of 7.5 years in the Peli- the wall reminded me that the world did tirely by prison informants. I ask repeated- can Bay shu, the only one for which the in fact turn and that time was something ly why I’m not allowed to visit another pod California Department of Corrections and other than the stagnant pool my life was or speak to other shu inmates. Eventually, Rehabilitation (cdcr) has statistics. More draining into. Acosta snaps: “You’re just not.” than half of the 1,126 prisoners here have Here, there are no windows. been in isolation for at least five years. Acosta, Pelican Bay’s public informa- if i could, I would meet with Dietrich Eighty-nine have been there for at least 20 tion officer, is giving me a tour of the Se- Pennington, a 59-year-old Army veteran years. One has been in solitary for 42 years. curity Housing Unit. Inmates deemed a from Oakland who has served 20 years of a Like many of the others, Pennington has threat to the security of any of California’s life sentence for robbery, kidnapping, and never been charged with any serious prison 33 prisons are shipped to one of the state’s attempted murder. Pennington has lived offenses, like fighting or selling drugs. In five shus (pronounced “shoes”), which alone in one of these cells for more than four 20 years of incarceration, his only strikes hold nearly 4,000 people in long-term isolation. In the Pelican Bay shu, 94 percent of prisoners are celled alone; overcrowding has forced the prison to double up the rest. 42 Years of Solitude By Ryan Jacobs Statewide, about 32 percent of shu cells— 81,622 Number of prisoners in solitary confinement across the United States in 2005, hardly large enough for one person—are the last year for which the federal government released data crammed with two inmates. The cell I am standing in is one of eight 11,730 Number of inmates held in isolation in California prisons today in a “pod,” a large concrete room with cells 7 Percentage of California inmates who are in isolation along one side and only one exit, which leads to the guards’ control room. A guard 39 Percentage of inmate suicides that happen in isolation units watches over us, rifle in hand, through a set 78 Percentage of Security Housing Unit (shu) inmates not classified as gang of bars in the wall. He can easily shoot into “leaders” or “members” any one of six pods around him. He com- Extra annual cost to taxpayers for each prisoner in the Pelican Bay shu municates with prisoners through speakers $12,317 and opens their steel grated cell doors via 11'7" x 7'7" Dimensions of a shu cell at Pelican Bay remote. That is how they are let out to the 6' x 8' Dimensions of the average American home’s walk-in closet dog run, where they exercise for an hour a day, alone. They don’t leave the cell to 51 Percentage of Pelican Bay shu inmates who have spent at least five years in eat. If they ever leave the pod, they have isolation to strip naked, pass their hands through a 89 Number who have been in solitary for at least 20 years food slot to be handcuffed, then wait for the door to open and be bellycuffed. 1 Number who have been there for 42 years

24 mother jones | November/December 2012 have been two rule violations: delaying roll call and refusing to be housed in a dorm- style cell with at least seven other prisoners. While in prison, he became a certified welder, receiving a special commendation for his work on building a rollover crash simulator for the California Highway Pa- trol. He used to regularly attend religious services and self-help groups, including parenting classes, Alcoholics Anonymous, and Narcotics Anonymous, all of which are forbidden in the shu. Pennington’s lawyer, Charles Carbone, says his “impeccable prison record” should have him on track for parole. But there is no chance of that—four years ago Penning- ton was “validated” by prison staff as an associate of a prison gang (one formed on the Shane Bauer was one of the three American hikers imprisoned in Iran after being apprehended on the Iraqi inside, as opposed to a street gang). That’s border in 2009. He spent 26 months in Tehran’s Evin Prison, 4 of them in solitary. He now lives in Oakland, the reason he and thousands of others are California, and is working on a book with his fellow hostages, Sarah Shourd (now his wife) and Josh Fattal. Visit our site for a companion video, where Bauer discusses the experience of reporting this story in the shu with no exit date. just months after being released from Iran. Also at MotherJones.com: a plethora of primary documents, Pennington is not accused of giving or including letters from inmates, validation evidence, and prison manuals, as well as the data from our carrying out orders on behalf of any gang. solitary confinement survey. In fact, there is no evidence that he’s ever communicated with a member of a gang in that, by naming the confiscated materials, the prisoners are mentally defective. There his entire life. “I’ve never been, never want the author “communicates to associates of is only the merest suggestion that the sys- to be a part of no gang,” he wrote me. (He the bgf...as to which material needs to be tem itself is at fault.” is currently trying to challenge his valida- studied.” No one alleges that Pennington California officials frequently cite pos- tion in court.) ever attempted to contact the author. It is session of black literature, left-wing mate- To validate an inmate as a gang mem- enough that he possessed the article. rials, and writing about prisoner rights as ber, the state requires at least three pieces The second piece of evidence was a cup evidence of gang affiliation. In the dozens of evidence, which must be “indicative of Pennington had in his cell bearing a picture of cases I reviewed, gang investigators have actual membership” or association with a of a dragon, an image cdcr considers an used the term “[bgf] training material” to prison gang in the last six years. At least “identifying symbol” of the Black Guerilla refer to publications by California Prison one item must show a “direct link,” like a Family. The third was a notebook he kept, Focus, a group that advocates the abolition note or other communication, to a vali- which the gang investigator alleges “shows of the shus; Jackson’s once best-selling dated gang member or associate. Once the his beliefs in the ideals of the bgf.” Its pages Soledad Brother; a pamphlet said to refer- prison’s gang investigator has gathered this are filled with references to black history— ence “Revolutionary Black Nationalism, evidence, it is reviewed in an administra- Nat Turner, the Scottsboro 9, the number The Black Internationalist Party, Marx, and tive hearing and then sent to cdcr head- of blacks executed between 1930 and 1969, Lenin”; and a pamphlet titled “The Black quarters in Sacramento. and quotes from figures like W.E.B. Du People’s Prison Survival Guide.” This last In Pennington’s file, the “direct link” Bois and Malcolm X. There are also passag- one advises inmates to read books, keep is his possession of an article published es in which Pennington ruminates at length a dictionary handy, practice yoga, avoid in the San Francisco Bay View, an African on what he calls “the oppression and vio- watching too much television, and stay American newspaper with a circulation lence inflicted upon us here in maximum away from “leaders of gangs.” of around 15,000. The paper is approved security,” referencing a Time exposé. The list goes on. Other materials consid- for distribution in California prisons, and Pennington never mentions gangs or ered evidence of gang involvement have Pennington’s right to receive it is protected unlawful activity in his writing. But in his included writings by Mumia Abu-Jamal; under state law. In the op-ed style article validation documents, the gang investiga- The Black Panther Party: Reconsidered, a he had in his cell, titled “Guards confiscate tor points out that the notebook contains collection of academic essays by Uni- ‘revolutionary’ materials at Pelican Bay,” quotes by Fleeta Drumgo and George versity of Cincinnati professor Charles a validated member of the Black Guerilla Jackson, two former Black Panthers who Jones; pictures of Assata Shakur, Malcolm Family prison gang complains about the are revered by members of the bgf and po- X, George Jackson, and Nat Turner; and seizure of literature and pictures from his liticized African American prisoners gener- virtually anything using the term “New cell and accuses the prison of pursuing ally. The single Jackson quote Pennington Afrikan.” At least one validation besides “racist policy.” In Pennington’s validation wrote down reads, “The text books on Pennington’s referenced handwritten pag-

james west james documents, the gang investigator contends criminology like to advance the idea that es of “Afro centric ideology.”

November/December 2012 | mother jones 25 As warden of San Quentin Prison in the Vasquez testified in federal court in the ruled that the huelga bird is of “obscure 1980s, Daniel Vasquez oversaw what was case of a former inmate, Ernesto Lira, who and ambiguous meaning,” it continues to then the country’s largest shu. He’s now was gang validated in part based on a draw- be used as validation evidence. a corrections consultant and has testified ing that included an image of the huelga Gang evidence comes in countless on behalf of inmates seeking to reverse bird, the symbol of the United Farm forms. Possession of Machiavelli’s The their validations. As we sat in his subur- Workers. While the image has been co- Prince, Robert Greene’s The 48 Laws of ban Bay Area home, he told me it is “very opted by the Nuestra Familia prison gang, Power, or Sun Tzu’s The Art of War has common” for African American prisoners Vasquez testified that it is “a popular sym- been invoked as evidence. One inmate’s who display leadership qualities or radical bol widely used in Hispanic culture and by validation includes a Christmas card with political views to end up in the shu. Simi- California farmworkers.” Lira’s validation stars drawn on it—alleged gang symbols— larly, he recalls, “we were told that when was one of a handful to ever be reversed among Hershey’s Kisses and a candy cane. an African American inmate identified as in federal court—though not until after he Another included a poetry booklet the in- being Muslim, we were supposed to watch was released on parole, having spent eight mate had coauthored with a validated bgf them carefully and get their names.” years in the shu. And though the court member. One poem reflected on what it

Seven by Eleven One inmate’s cell in the Pelican Bay Security Housing Unit —S.B.

7 5

13 12

6 4

1 shu cells are 11 feet 7 inches by 7 feet 7 inches. With about eight feet of walking space, pacing—essential to quiet the mind—is difficult. Despite the cold cement floor, socks are forbidden. 1 10 2 No windows. 3 No more than 15 pictures are allowed per cell; hanging the wrong one can mean another six years in the shu. 4 Toilet paper can be used as a ball to toss against the wall. 5 Most shu prisoners are only allowed five books or periodicals at one 9 A blanket doubles as an exercise mat or, folded, as a chair. time—many landed in solitary because of what they read. 10 The toilet faces the door to be in view of guards. 6 The most time-consuming book in existence, the dictionary 11 Food is hoarded for when prison grub is worse than usual. Sugary is therefore the best. Learning words like “sesquipedalian” or condiments, like ketchup, are forbidden to keep prisoners from memorizing Morse code makes days feel productive. fermenting them into alcohol. 7 Careful with a Spanish phrasebook like this—using words like tío or 12 TVs in the shu have clear sides so inmates can’t hide things in them. hermano can be considered evidence of gang activity. 13 Like a drug, letters read over and over again give momentary 8 Chessboards and cards are forbidden in the shu, but some inmates comfort, then leave a bigger void. shu inmates aren’t allowed phone

secretly make their own. calls or contact visits. bauer shane

26 mother jones | November/December 2012 no way out was like to feel human touch after 14 years holding inmates in segregation for an aver- Mexican Mafia. The Nuestra Familia. The and another warned against spreading hiv. age term of 29 days. At least 12 states review Northern Structure. “It’s about power,” he The only reference to violence was the line, an inmate’s segregation status every 30 days says. “It’s about control. It’s about extortion. “this senseless dying gotta end.” or less; Massachusetts does it weekly. It’s about money. It’s about dope. It’s about “Direct links” that appear in inmates’ Keeping all these inmates segregated murder.” Membership in a gang is not illegal case files are often things they have no con- is an expensive proposition for taxpay- in the United States—it’s a right protected by trol over, like having their names found in ers. Pelican Bay spends at least 20 percent the First Amendment—but Barneburg says the cells of validated gang members or as- more to keep an inmate in isolation—an segregating gang members is the only way sociates or having a validated gang affili- extra $12,317 per inmate per year, or $14 to keep prisons from being overrun by racial ate send them a letter, even if they never million annually. strife, stabbings, and killings. received it or knew of its existence. Appear- When I ask him how well that’s worked, ing in a group picture with one validated at pelican bay, decisions about who he stutters and says diffidently, “I think gang associate counts as a direct link, even gets put in the hole indefinitely come there’s been less violence.” if that person wasn’t validated at the time. down to one man: Institutional Gang In- He’s wrong. The rate of violent inci- In the course of my investigation, I ob- vestigator David Barneburg. A stocky man dents in California prisons is nearly 20 tained cdcr’s confidential validation man- with a shaved head and a seven-point star percent higher than when Pelican Bay ual. It teaches investigators that use of the on the breast of his khaki uniform, Barne- opened in 1989. As I walk with Lieuten- words tío or hermano, Spanish for uncle and burg comes from a lineage of loggers who ant Acosta alongside the general popula- brother, can indicate gang activity, as can found themselves out of work when the tion yard—a grassy, if bleak, fenced-in area señor. Validation files on Latino inmates timber industry busted. When Pelican Bay where, unlike in the shu, prisoners are al- have included drawings of the ancient opened its doors amidst the majestic red- lowed to interact—he unwittingly contra- Aztec jaguar knight and Aztec war shields, woods in 1989, his father signed up. dicts Barneburg’s claim too, saying that and anything in the indigenous Nahuatl Pelican Bay was a new kind of prison—one violence in Pelican Bay has seen dramatic language, spoken by an estimated 1.4 mil- of the nation’s first full-fledged supermaxes, spikes over the years. In the 1990s, he says, lion people in central Mexico. built with the explicit purpose of housing “you didn’t see the big fights, all the riots. Some shu inmates, aside from the “bona inmates in long-term isolation. After Peli- It was like one, two guys fighting, maybe fide gang members,” are those “the guards can Bay, supermaxes popped up across the three guys.” But since then, prison gang don’t like,” says Carbone, Pennington’s country, in part to deal with rising violence violence has escalated dramatically, with lawyer. “They get annihilated with gang validations in order to get them off the main Evidence used to send inmates to solitary indefinitely lines…The rules are so flimsy that if the department wants includes possession of books like Sun Tzu’s The Art of somebody validated, he will get War and Machiavelli’s The Prince. validated.” California is just one of many states where inmates can be thrown into solitary confinement on in increasingly crowded prisons. Today, riots involving upwards of 200 people. sketchy grounds—though just how many there are roughly 60 nationwide. Prison violence fluctuates for myriad rea- is hard to know. A survey conducted by Barneburg started here in 1997, and af- sons, among them overcrowding, gang poli- Mother Jones found that most states had ter 15 years on the job, he comes off as a tics, and prison conditions. It’s impossible some kind of gang validation process, but man under duress. He makes a point of as- to say for certain what role shus play; what implementation varied widely, and a num- suring me that he and his gang investiga- is clear is that in states that have reduced ber of states would not disclose their poli- tions team of 10 are not “knuckle-dragging solitary confinement—Colorado, Maine, cies at all. Only 10 states said they don’t thugs.” He tells me he has to regularly take and Mississippi—violence has not increased. house inmates in “single-celled segrega- the stand in court to defend gang valida- (Illinois plans to close its notorious Tamms tion” indeterminately. (No state officially tions. To date, prisoners have sued him supermax soon.) Since Mississippi State uses the term “solitary.”) at least 30 times, though I could find no Penitentiary at Parchman released 75 per- It’s unclear how many states keep in- record of any having succeeded. “I don’t cent of inmates from solitary in the mid- mates in solitary as long as California want to go as far as saying gang investiga- 2000s, violence has dropped 50 percent. does. Texas has 4,748 validated affiliates of tors are persecuted, but...” cdcr officials claim California is dif- “security threat groups” in indefinite soli- He is giving me a PowerPoint presenta- ferent because the gang problem is worse tary—more than California’s prison gang af- tion detailing the structures and operations here, though they don’t have data to con- filiates—and some have been there for more of the seven prison gangs targeted by the firm this. Barneburg says withoutshu s, than 20 years. Louisiana has held two Black department of corrections. The Nazi Low there would be no way to prevent gang Panthers in solitary for 40 years. Minnesota Riders. The Aryan Brotherhood. The Texas leaders from giving orders to the general is near the opposite end of the spectrum, Syndicate. The Black Guerilla Family. The population. What he doesn’t say is that

November/December 2012 | mother jones 27 very few shu inmates are considered gang our lawyer were allowed to see it. Attorney Charles Carbone, who has chal- leaders even by cdcr’s standards. Only 22 None of the gang validation proceed- lenged more than 200 gang validations (of percent of those serving indeterminate shu ings, from the initial investigation to the fi- which he says about 25 have been success- terms are validated even as members of pris- nal sentencing, have any judicial oversight. ful), says inmates who represent themselves on gangs. The rest, like Dietrich Penning- They are all internal. Other than the in- succeed “less than 1 percent” of the time. ton, are classified as associates, people who mate, there is only one person present—the The biggest obstacle is the “some evidence” are accused of having had some connec- gang investigator—and he serves as judge, standard, which essentially means that tion with members—or other associates—of jury, and prosecutor. After the hearing, cdcr only has to provide a bare minimum prison gangs. the investigator will send his validation of proof. The courts do not weigh the evi- Former San Quentin Warden Daniel package to Sacramento for approval. The dence or decide whether or not a prisoner Vasquez says association with prison gangs—for protection, among other things—is “pretty Officials say solitary is needed to isolate gang leaders. inescapable” in the hostile and racially segregated atmosphere But very few of the thousands in segregation are inside. “You’re going to come classified as gangmembers , let alone leaders. across them in some form or fashion,” he says. “You are going to start experiencing the pressures of these gangs.” Barneburg him- chances of it being refused are vanishingly is in a gang. The judge’s job is only to “see self acknowledges it is hard for a Mexican small: The department’s own data shows whether any evidence exists,” Carbone from Southern California, for example, to that of the 6,300 validations submitted says. “And if it does, he won’t evaluate it. keep away from the Mexican Mafia, since since 2009, only 25 have been rejected—0.4 He’ll leave that to the prison authorities.” the gang sees itself as the authority over percent. “It’s pretty much a rubber stamp- any Mexican prisoner from the lower part ing,” Vasquez says. how does someone get out of the shu, of the state. A full 2,201 people currently “That is a system that has no place in then? Officially, there are two ways. One is serving indeterminate shu terms are vali- a constitutional democracy,” says David to be declared an “inactive” gang member dated as associates of that gang; there are Fathi, director of the American Civil Lib- or associate, which doesn’t happen very of- only 98 validated members. erties Union’s National Prison Project. He ten. Just a few dozen inmates are released Being associated with a prison gang—even says California’s policy is “a form of guilt to the general population every year via if you haven’t done anything illegal—carries by association that is completely foreign that process—less than 1 percent of those a much heavier penalty than, say, stabbing to our legal system. Prison administrators serving indeterminate shu terms. The earli- someone. Association could land you in have absolute power, and that is a recipe est chance of being classified as “inactive” solitary for decades. An inmate who mur- for abuse and violation of rights.” is six years from the latest evidenced gang ders a guard—the severest crime in prison— cdcr officials are quick to point out that activity. Then, if a gang investigator pro- can get no more than five years in theshu . inmates can challenge their gang status: vides a single piece of new evidence—say They can appeal to the gang investigator, a book found in the cell or a tidbit from a the decision to put a man in solitary the warden, and, as a last resort, the de- confidential informant—the inmate has to indefinitely is made at internal hearings partmental appeals office in Sacramento. wait six more years. that last, prisoners say, about 20 minutes. But former Pelican Bay Warden Joseph The other way out is to debrief—to di- They are closed-door affairs. cdcr told me McGrath testified in court that “officers vulge everything an inmate knows about a I couldn’t witness one. No one can. do not reevaluate the evidence” and that, if gang, including names of members and as- When Josh Fattal and I finally came be- an appeal came to him, he would “assume sociates. This he can do at any time. An av- fore the Revolutionary Court in Iran, we the truth of whatever was written” in the erage of 108 do it every year, even though had a lawyer present, but weren’t allowed validation documents. When I asked cdcr among prisoners snitching can carry the to speak to him. In California, an inmate for an example of an appeal resulting in a death penalty. facing the worst punishment our penal sys- reversal of a gang validation, they couldn’t And what if a prisoner in the shu doesn’t tem has to offer short of death can’t even produce a single case. Gang investigator know anything? As former Pelican Bay have a lawyer in the room. He can’t gather Barneburg, who has worked at Pelican Bay Warden McGrath testified in court three or present evidence in his defense. He can’t for 15 years, has never seen a validation ap- years ago, anyone mistakenly validated call witnesses. Much of the evidence—any- peal succeed either—evidence, he says, of “cannot debrief,” because they have noth- thing provided by informants—is confiden- his team’s thoroughness. “We put out re- ing to give. Catch-22. tial and thus impossible to refute. That’s ally quality work,” he says. In Pelican Bay’s Transitional Program- what Judge Salavati told us after our pros- If an inmate exhausts his administrative ming Unit—the place where inmates go ecutor spun his yarn about our role in a appeals, he has the legal right to take his once they’ve been released from the shu—I vast American-Israeli conspiracy: There case to court. Most can’t afford a lawyer, sit at a metal table with Paul Bocanegra, a were heaps of evidence, but neither we nor so they end up representing themselves. burly, tattooed former prison gang mem-

28 mother jones | November/December 2012 no way out

ber. He spent 12 years in isolation before ment programs, or religious services are where he can exit his cell without cuffs and he debriefed. Now, he is housed among permitted. shu prisoners are not allowed go to an outdoor exercise yard with a small other debriefers and will probably never go phone calls (except in approved emergen- group of other people, he says, made him back to the general population. Assault or cies) or contact visits. Clocks, photo al- “feel like you’re free.” When he walked out murder, he says, is “usually what happens bums, food condiments containing sugar of the shu, he saw his first tree in 12 years. once you turn your back on your buddies— (like ketchup), playing cards, and chess- people you used to run with. That’s always boards are all banned. Only after a nearly every day, I come home to a new stack of in the back of your head. What’s gonna three-week-long hunger strike last year were letters from prisoners—our hostage story, it happen if one day I get out, you know?” shu inmates allowed calendars, as well as seems, is best known inside America’s peni- cdcr claims that indeterminate shu sen- handballs to use in the concrete dog run. tentiaries. For a while, I try to respond to tences are not meant to be punitive but are Their monthly canteen draw is a quarter each one, but as the weeks and months simply intended to isolate dangerous pris- of the regular population’s allowance, as is pass, they start to pile up. I become afraid of oners. That’s also the argument the depart- the one 30-pound package they can receive them and all the sorrow they contain. They ment uses to refute challenges like the class per year. Pelican Bay Warden Greg Lewis take me back to my own time in solitary— action lawsuit under way by the Center for insists this, too, isn’t to punish them, but and how can I go back there every day? Constitutional Rights on behalf of Pelican to provide “a very safe environment.” One morning, I sit down at my desk and Bay prisoners who have spent between 10 When I ask Bocanegra if the shu is pun- look at the stack of envelopes slowly taking and 28 years in solitary. The suit claims ishment, he laughs. “It’s meant to break it over. I need to write these people back. that prolonged shu confinement is cruel a person,” he says. “You have to accept I know what it’s like to wait for word from and unusual punishment. whether you want to die back there or you the outside. Some of them remind me of Is it not? In the shu, no work, drug treat- want to change.” Leaving the shu for a unit myself while I was locked up, their whole lives bent on staying sane. They write. They read. They exercise. They meditate. Others make me think of what I would have eventually become. Their letters don’t make sense. They write me constantly, desper- ately. They are broken. Instead of digging into the pile, I place a stack of 18 postcards in front of me and write on each of them a question that has been on my mind since I left Peli- can Bay: “Do you think prolonged shu confinement is torture?” I send them to prisoners across the state and 14 write back, all with the same answer: “yes.” One tells me he has developed a condition in which he bites down on his back teeth so hard he has loosened them. They write: “I am filled with the sensation of drowning each and every day.” “I was housed next door to… guys who have eaten and drank their own body waste and who have thrown their own body waste in the cells that I and others were housed in. I cry.” There are plenty of studies about the psychosis-like symptoms that result from prolonged solitary. Indicators of what psychiatrist Stuart Grassian calls “shu syn- drome” include confusion and hallucina- tion, overwhelming anxiety, the emergence of primitive aggressive fantasies, persecuto- ry ideation, and sudden violent outbursts. As I read the medical literature, I remem- ber the violent fantasies that sometimes seized my mind so fully that not even medi-

Ronald Brown (top) and Paul Bocanegra (bottom) have been moved from the shu into another prison unit. tation—with which I luckily had a modicum james west (2) west james When he got out of solitary, Bocanegra says, it felt “like you’re free.” of experience before I was jailed—would

November/December 2012 | mother jones 29 no way out chase them away. Was the uncontrollable now wife, Sarah Shourd. Though Josh and whether it shows in his stride like I could banging on my cell door, the pounding of I were celled together after four months, with the guys who walked past my cell. I my fists into my mattress, just a common Sarah remained in isolation, seeing us for can tell you that when he was 26, he busted symptom of isolation? I wonder what hap- only an hour a day. Late last year, Nowak’s out of jail in Chicago, that The Decline and pens when someone with a history of vio- successor, Juan Mendez, came out with a Fall of the Roman Empire is one of his favor- lence is seized by such uncontrollable rage. report in which he called for an interna- ite books, and that he loves Phil Collins’ A 2003 study of inmates at the Pelican Bay tional prohibition on solitary confinement “In the Air Tonight.” shu by University of California-Santa Cruz of more than 15 days. He defined solitary I can tell you that he is one of Califor- psychology professor Craig Haney found as any regime where a person is held in iso- nia’s most effective jailhouse lawyers. This that 88 percent of the shu population ex- lation for at least 22 hours a day. Anything is how his days pass: At six o’clock every periences irrational anger, nearly 30 times more “constitutes torture or cruel, inhu- morning, he wakes up, washes his face, and more than the US population at large. man or degrading treatment or punish- scrubs the floor of his cell. He does half an Haney says there hasn’t been a single ment, depending on the circumstances.” hour of yoga and meditation. From noon study of involuntary solitary confinement When I called Mendez to ask about the until dinnertime, he sits hunched over on that didn’t show negative psychiatric shu, he said, “I don’t think any argument, his bed and pores over whatever legal case symptoms after 10 days. He found that including gang membership, can justify a he is working on. Sometimes he gets di- a full 41 percent of shu inmates reported very long-term measure that is inflicting verted and watches court shows. It’s one of hallucinations. Twenty-seven percent have pain and suffering that is prohibited by the his weaknesses. suicidal thoughts. cdcr’s own data shows Convention Against Torture.” When Bruce was a kid, he says, his mom that, from 2007 to 2010, inmates in isola- cdcr, like correctional departments had nervous breakdowns when she would tion killed themselves at eight times the around the country, does not consider the turn into a zombie that he had to feed and rate of the general prison population. shu solitary confinement. Inmates have TV, bathe. Her boyfriend’s solution was to “slap In the shu, people diagnosed with and they have contact with staff when they her out of it.” At 13 or 14 he started running mental illnesses like depression—which af- bring them their food, officials told me. Our with the Crips. Since then, he has spent a flicts, according to Haney, 77 percent of interrogators in Iran said the same thing. total of about one year on the outside. At shu inmates—only see a psychologist once 23, he was convicted of three counts of first- every 30 days. Anyone whose mental ill- josh and i used to make up stories about degree murder, two counts of attempted ness qualifies as “serious” (the criterion other prisoners who walked past our cell, murder, and two counts of first-degree rob- for which is “possible breaks with real- blindfolded, on their way to the bathroom. bery, and sentenced to life without parole. ity,” according to Pelican Bay’s chief of In our imaginations, the man who looked Several years into his incarceration, he mental health, Dr. Tim McCarthy) must to be in his mid-30s with a smooth head started to organize other prisoners. In the be removed from the shu. When they are, and a slim build was the lead singer in an 1990s at Salinas Valley State Prison, he they get sent to a special psychiatric unit— alternative rock band. His anguish was crossed the intense racial divide of prison where they are locked up in solitary. Some fueled by the fact that the government and organized 74 black, white, and Latino 364 prisoners are there today. deemed his music subversive, when all he prisoners to pressure the administration into providing family visita- tion, religious services, and The UN says more than 15 days in solitary is “torture or better food. In 1998, Bruce was put cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment.” At Pelican in administrative segrega- Bay, 89 men have been in the hole 20 years or more. tion for allegedly assaulting another inmate. Ad-seg, as it is commonly known, is a solitary unit in each prison Is long-term shu confinement torture? wanted was to play his guitar. The grizzled where inmates are often placed for disci- The aclu says yes. Physicians for Hu- old man was a playwright. The guy with plinary infractions. Some 6,700 California man Rights agree. The Center for Human the long beard was an imam. The clean-cut prisoners are in such units. Rights and Constitutional Law and several twentysomething was an internet hacker. Bruce’s ad-seg term was supposed to last other prisoner rights groups recently filed a Lately, it’s like I’ve been doing the op- 90 days. While there, he started pushing for petition with the United Nations claiming posite—shaping living, breathing people improvements—allowing ad-seg inmates ac- just that. Human Rights Watch says at the out of snatches of information. Vincent cess to the exercise yard, reading and writ- very least, it constitutes cruel, inhuman, Bruce has written me more than 20 times, ing materials, the law library, and adequate and degrading treatment, which is prohib- and I’ve read through hundreds of pages bedding and clothing. Shortly afterward, he ited by international law. of his court and prison files. From this, I was told he wouldn’t be getting out of isola- UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Man- can tell you that the 50-year-old has spent tion: He was under investigation for gang fred Nowak once sent a letter to Tehran to nine and a half years in isolation—seven of affiliation. (His time in the Crips, which he appeal on behalf of my fellow hostage, and them alone in the shu—but I can’t tell you says ended years ago, was irrelevant here—

30 mother jones | November/December 2012 Prisoners in Pelican Bay’s Security Housing Unit are allowed into the “dog run,” a.k.a. exercise yard, alone, for an hour each day.

indeterminate shu terms are only given for over a period of six years, including wheel- package, he claimed Bruce’s retaliation connections with prison gangs.) chair-accessible tables for the yard. At one case against cdcr in itself constituted This had happened before, but inves- point he initiated a hunger strike that in- “gang activity.” In January 2008, he was tigators had determined the evidence volved 120 inmates. Two days later, he validated as an associate of the bgf and his “insufficient.” This time—using the same was put in ad-seg for “conspiracy to assault shu sentence was extended indefinitely. evidence—Bruce was validated and trans- staff.” The claim was based on confidential The evidence against him was confidential. ferred to the Pelican Bay shu. He denies information that the person in charge of re- He has been in the shu ever since. ever affiliating with a prison gang. viewing ad-seg assignments later found did Six months after his indefiniteshu term Bruce would later write in a legal com- not exist; it couldn’t be found anywhere in began, he received a letter from a young plaint that the gang investigator told him his file. He spent a year in isolation. man he’d been celled with a few years be- the goal was to “make an example out of About a year after Bruce was released fore. “Although I tried my best not to let him” because he was acting as a “spokes- from ad-seg, cdcr agreed to a settlement in you know I was listening to you,” the other person for other prisoners’ grievances.” It his retaliation suit, paying him $7,500 and prisoner wrote, “my ears was always open would be nearly three years before he had guaranteeing him adequate due process when you spoke. Vincent you have made direct contact with another human being. in the future. Ten days later, two assistant me a wise young man, and did something In 1999, Bruce sued the department gang investigators came to Bruce’s cell and for me I will never forget.” Now, he wrote, of corrections, claiming he had been put confiscated his legal materials, a violation “The gang banging life is over with.” in the hole for being a jailhouse lawyer. of California law. That same day, he was Thanks to his legal pestering, the court placed in ad-seg for possession of a shiv. information obtained from prisoners in eventually appointed him an attorney. Prison officials later acknowledged that solitary has long been viewed with suspi- The case dragged on for seven years. Mean- the weapon didn’t belong to him, but the cion. Numerous psychological studies while, he was released from the shu as an charge was never dropped, and he was sent have found that the more people are sub- “inactive” gang associate and transferred to the shu to serve a 10-month sentence. ject to sensory deprivation, the more sug- to another prison, where he continued his The gang investigator meant to keep gestible they become. A 1961 US Air Force

shane bauer shane advocacy, winning at least 25 concessions him there. In yet another gang validation study titled “The Manipulation of Human

November/December 2012 | mother jones 31 no way out

Behavior” cast this as a plus, saying, “Soli- affidavits that they had never been inter- inmates participated in protests against tary confinement and monotonous, bar- viewed about the subject and didn’t know long-term shu confinement across the ren surroundings play an important role in the guard who compiled their alleged state- state, making it probably the largest pris- making the prisoner more receptive and ments. The paperwork that allegedly docu- on strike in recent history—twice the size susceptible to the influence of the interro- mented their statements didn’t bear their of the one that took place a few months gator.” After the public disclosure of the signatures. In another of the interviews earlier. The prisoners were demanding cia’s 1983 “Human Resource Exploitation used against Gray, the staff assistant says changes to the gang validation policy and Training Manual,” which taught agents the gang investigator appeared “to be lead- an end to long-term solitary. how to extract confessions without leaving ing” the informant “to answer questions Implicit in the two hunger strikes was bruises, the agency renounced the use of the way he would like.” a message: The use of prolonged solitary “coercive interrogation techniques,” in- Like Bruce, Gray believes the gang in- confinement was leading to the kind of cluding solitary confinement, in part be- vestigator retaliated against him for his unrest it was meant to tamp down. Near- cause they yielded “unreliable results.” work as a jailhouse lawyer, a role in which ly three weeks into the 2011 strike, cdcr In California, much of the information he has been particularly successful—his big- promised to make changes to its gang used to validate prisoners comes from the gest victory was an Eighth Amendment validation policy. Since then, it has been 108 inmates who debrief every year, creating claim against prison guards that won him hammering out a set of reforms, aimed a revolving door where people get out of the a $115,000 settlement from cdcr. Indeed, primarily at turning the policy into a “be- shu by putting others in. Pelican Bay gang his legal work is specifically referenced in his havior-based” one. This would bring Cali- investigator David Barneburg insists that all validation. One piece of evidence pointedly fornia in line with other states that—at least information is double-checked against in- stated that Gray’s “use of correspondence on paper—segregate people only when they formation provided by other sources. But as for legal purposes is well documented.” engage in violent or dangerous activity. long as this information is kept secret from The staff assistant’s review recommended The new policy, which is already being everyone, including lawyers, that vetting is that Gray be classified as an “inactive” gang rolled out on a pilot basis, will also include left up to investigators—and there’s evidence member and stated that Gray “does not a “step down” program that would allow that they are not immune to the temptation have a problem following the rules once inmates to work their way out of the shu to make things up. he is aware of them.” But six years later, over a four-year period, rather than wait In 2006, a prisoner with a violence-free Gray remains in the shu. The warden who six years before their case is even reviewed. prison record named Ricky Gray was validat- ordered the review transferred to another After a year of abstaining from gang ac- ed as a member of the Black Guerilla Family prison 37 days after it was completed, and tivity in the shu, an inmate will be able and given an indeterminate shu sentence. the gang investigator—the same man who to get one phone call per year, a deck of But the warden at his prison, who Gray presided over Gray’s validation in the first cards, and the ability to spend 11 more claims was sympathetic to his case, took place—chose not to change Gray’s valida- dollars at the canteen every month. After an unusual step: He instructed a staff assis- tion status in response to the investigation. three years, he’ll be allowed a chessboard, and his family will be able to send him two packages One judge ruled that inmates have “no immunity each year rather than one. Department officials in from being falsely accused”—that it’s not illegal for Sacramento wouldn’t talk authorities to lie to lock someone away in solitary. to me about the new policy—after my visit to Pelican Bay, they declined further interviews, citing pend- tant to reinterview the informants who had When Gray took the matter to court, the ing litigation. But when I talked to cdcr given evidence against him. The assistant judge ruled that “a prisoner has no constitu- spokeswoman Terry Thornton about the concluded that the entire validation pack- tionally guaranteed immunity from being reforms, she said, “I think you are going to age was “comprised of conjecture, second falsely or wrongfully accused of conduct see a lot of people classified as associates hand expression, assumptions, frivolous which may result in the deprivation of a getting out of the shu.” Under the new pol- statements, incomplete documentation, protected liberty interest.” In other words, icy, associates—unlike members—of prison and blatant lack of thorough investigation.” it is not illegal for prison authorities to lie gangs will only be put in the shu if they Gray managed to obtain a copy of this con- in order to lock somebody away in solitary. commit a “serious” rule violation or two fidential report, and his lawyer passed it to “administrative” rule violations. me, providing a rare glimpse of the type of at some point during the disorienting Here’s the catch, though: cdcr is vastly evidence used in gang validations. reentry blitz that followed my release in expanding what counts as rule violations. Several of the alleged informants, the as- September of last year, I heard that in Under current regulations, “serious” vio- sistant wrote, didn’t know Gray at all. Two California, prisoners were doing what lations are things like assaults, drug use, others—said to have reported that Gray was the three of us had done in Iran: hunger and escape attempts. But in the latest ver- recruiting inmates to the bgf—signed sworn striking to protest isolation. Up to 12,000 sion of the reforms, [continued on page 67]

32 mother jones | November/December 2012 no way out [continued from page 32] the definition in- out of the shu for years, but through his cludes possession of “training material” florid prose, I hear the voice of someone for security threat groups (the new term who is still profoundly disturbed by the for gangs), like the books listed earlier. time he did there. Things that didn’t previously count as a rule violation—such as making artwork March 27, 2012 depicting threat-group symbols, commu- ...Like you, I know what it is like to have our nication showing threat-group behavior, very existence internalized to the point of kiss- and anything that “depicts affiliation” ing Siren on the lips while she guided us to the with a threat group—will all be serious rule rocks of insanity. Then, wondering if we’d ever violations on par with stabbing some- escape her spell. Fortunately we both did. But body. “Administrative rule violations” as you will learn about you and me, we did will now include many new categories, not come out unscathed. At times...I mourn such as possession of photos of validated the solitude of days gone past. Days where time threat-group affiliates. lost all meaning; to the point where I knew not Most critically, the new security threat if I was alive or dead; and where sometimes I group category doesn’t just denote prison did not care either way... gangs, but also includes a much larger —Steve Castillo number of “disruptive groups.” Among these are street gangs, motorcycle gangs, After I read this, I go to the big wicker and “revolutionary groups.” The list of chest at the foot of our bed. In it are let- disruptive organizations that cdcr gave ters written to me by friends, family, and me runs to 1,500, including not only the strangers that I never received because the Bloods and Crips, but also the Juggalos, Iranian censors would only let in mail from the dedicated clown-faced following of immediate family. There are hundreds of the dual-platinum horrorcore hip-hop these; I keep them because I think I might group Insane Clown Posse. The Black read them some day. But not now. Instead, Panthers are on the list, as are a couple I grab a little piece of paper that is covered in of Nation of Islam-affiliated groups. One microscopic writing, the script so small and category is titled “Black-Non Specific,” the shorthand so esoteric that I can hardly suggesting that any group with the word read it, even though it was written by my “black” in its name can be considered dis- own hand. It is the only piece of my prison ruptive. (cdcr would not respond to my journal—written on scraps of paper and hid- questions on this matter.) den in the spines of books—that made it out. Taken together, the policy changes could mean that a Crip taking part in a The more one is utterly alone, the more the mind hunger strike, a Black Panther with a draw- comes to reflect the cell; it becomes blank static... ing he made of his organization’s name- Solitary confinement is not some sort of ca- sake cat, or an Insane Clown Posse fan with thartic horror of blazing nerves and searing an album cover and a concert photo could skin and heads smashing blindly into walls and receive indeterminate shu terms. screaming. Those moments come, but they are not the essence of solitary. They are events that one night, I stare at the pile of letters on penetrate the essence. They are stones tossed into my desk. I can’t let it keep growing, so I take an abyss. They are not the abyss itself... it over to the couch and read through them Solitary confinement is a living death. Death all. It’s painful. A part of me relates to these because it is the removal of nearly everything that people, but, like I wanted to tell Lieutenant characterizes humanness, living because within Acosta when I stood in that cell, there are it you are still you. The lights don’t turn out as in such huge differences too. They are crimi- real death. Time isn’t erased as in sleep... nals; I was a hostage. They are spending many years in solitary; I did four months. I carefully fold up the note, put it back in But still, I can’t escape the fact that their the chest, and step out onto our little second- desperate words sound like the ones that story porch, into the breeze and the sun. n ricocheted through my own head when I was inside. When I finish the stack of let- Additional reporting by Ryan Jacobs and Robert ters, I dig up the first correspondence I Owen Brown. This story was supported by a grant ever received from a prisoner. He has been from the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute.

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